Job security for metal-detector business

Dan McDonald

Monday

Dec 29, 2008 at 12:01 AMDec 29, 2008 at 5:19 PM

Whether it's an appearance of the Dalai Lama, a concert featuring a soon-to-be-jailed rapper or an inaugural ball for the next president of the United States, if security is needed and crowds are expected, Mike White's your man.

Whether it's an appearance of the Dalai Lama, a concert featuring a soon-to-be-jailed rapper or an inaugural ball for the next president of the United States, if security is needed and crowds are expected, Mike White's your man.

For White, what started as his father's pastime has culminated in the most serious of tasks: catastrophe avoidance.

As the East Coast representative for White's Metal Detectors, White supplies and assembles security metal detectors and distributes the metal detector "wands," from Maine to Georgia.

He also acts as a wholesale supplier of hand-held "hobby" metal detectors, the kind that drew White's father, Paul, into the business in the mid-1980s.

This week, the White's company officially opened on Rte. 9 East, moving into a 4,500-square-foot-building at 1164 Worcester Road that includes offices, retail space and a warehouse.

Despite the turmoil gripping the economy, White thought a portion of his company's product will always be in demand. The last thing, said White, to be trimmed from any type of budget in the post-9/11 world is often security, he said.

"It's truly recession-proof," he said.

Wherever there are crowds and a specter of danger, there will be demand, he reasoned.

Tomorrow night, for instance, thousands will pass through White's metal detecting machines on their way to a concert in Long Island featuring rappers T.I., Young Jeezy, Ludacris and Jim Jones.

Next month, he will set up the metal detectors at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C., where President-elect Barack Obama will host one of his 10 inaugural balls.

He's traveled to the last three Super Bowls. His company has secured contracts for the next three.

On Sept. 13, 2001, two days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks that killed thousands and changed the world of domestic security, White was in Boston, coordinating the installation of metal detectors for an appearance of former President George H.W. Bush.

White estimated the demand for metal detectors has increased 200 percent since 9/11.

"The business used to be 99 percent hobbies and a little security. Now we're talking 60-40 in favor of security," said White.

It didn't start out with worst possible-case scenarios, security fail-safes, and the specter of danger however.

During the 1980s, White's father began selling his self-made metal detectors out of the basement of his Framingham home. An enthusiast for antiquated trinkets, Paul White would comb historically rich locales from his home state to England, searching for coins, musket balls and rings.